Monday, August 28, 2017

I recently read Phillip K Dick's novel The Man in the High Castle. Re-read, technically, though the first time was more than twenty years ago, so my recollection was hazy at best.

I'm writing here about the novel, not the video series on Amazon Video. That's a good show, but it doesn't actually have a lot in common with the novel. It borrows the name of the novel and high-level world-building concept (the Axis powers won World War II), but little else. Character names, locations, and various plot elements from the book are present in the show, but almost none of them are used in the same way. The show uses much more of the world, has a much wider cast of characters, and describes a more detailed narrative than the book.

That world-building concept is the main draw of The Man in the High Castle. The author works in a good number of details about the alternate history of the world. Germany ended up with the hydrogen bomb, not the United States. Great Britain is portrayed as a major villain, the source of war criminals that committed atrocities in Africa during the conflict. Germany and Japan have divided the USA between them with a narrow buffer state in the Rocky Mountains. The inferiority of non-Aryan, non-Japanese races is accepted by the public at large, and Jews in particular live in fear. It's certainly the picture of a dystopia, but close enough to our own world's history that it's easy to picture as a possibility.

What the book doesn't do particularly well, at least in my opinion, is deliver a consistent and interesting narrative. The characters tend to sort of wander around aimlessly much of the time, with no real connection between them. There's a lot of reference to the I Ching, a Chinese divination text used as an oracle by most of the characters, which it seems to me was largely a crutch they used to deal with their lack of control over their own lives. There are a few major threads, following characters like Mr Tagomi, Juliana, and Frank, but all that really ties them together is a few chance encounters. I think that may have been part of the point, that people and events are influenced by seemingly inconsequential meetings, but in my mind it didn't make for a particularly compelling plot.

That's all right, though, since as far as I'm concerned the real point of the book is the world-building and exploration of how people live in that world. The German empire has expanded and made scientific advances that are the envy of the world, and undertaken great public works projects, including a Mars space program. Japan is the world's other great power, but clearly an underdog in any conflict. Both great empires are harshly oppressive by the standards of our world. Conflict between the two is looming. It's a detailed and coherent picture of the alternate world, though not a particularly bright one.

One major thing that sets The Man in the High Castle apart from many alternate history stories is the presence of "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy", a book that describes a world where the Allies won the war. Most of the characters encounter the book and largely dismiss it as fantasy, which makes perfect sense as that's exactly what the reader is doing with The Man in the High Castle. Mr Tagomi actually has an experience in an alternate world, but his mental state is precarious at best. In any event, the idea of an alternate world has little material impact, but it certainly affects the thoughts and actions of several of the main characters.

I really enjoyed the concepts set forth in The Man in the High Castle, with the alternate end to the war and the world that results. The actual writing wasn't really to my liking, but the ideas came through clearly enough and that makes it a fine read.

Friday, August 25, 2017

Kado starts with a giant cube-shaped alien artifact showing up on an airport runway and engulfing a jet and its passengers. Things progress from there through the usual panic, confusion, and eventually communication with an alien being (named Yaha-kui zaShunina). Over time, the plane passengers are all returned safely, but that's just the beginning of the alien encounter. Knowledge of huge scientific advancements follow, starting with unlimited clean energy, and quickly cause infighting among nations across the world. In the end, humanity has to deal with the zaShunina's real interests - I'm sure it's not much of a spoiler to say that it's not necessarily good for the humans involved.

The alien encounter here is framed as coming from higher dimensions, rather than life from elsewhere in our own universe. Not a new idea, but certainly less common than little green men or bugs or whatever from a distant star. The series uses some interesting visuals to emphasize the differences - for instance, zaShunina's arms aren't generally attached to his body and move independently, sometimes appearing and disappearing into thin air. There's also quite a lot of complex moving patterns used on the alien artifacts to give a sense of their strangeness and complexity.

Some of the usual themes in an alien encounter story are turned around in Kado. For instance, there's basically no secrecy involved - the media are fully involved at pretty much every step, at the insistence of zaShunina. He deals specifically with the government of Japan and shows no interest in other authorities, even when the United Nations gets involved. There's effectively no violence at all. The writers did a good job of making all these different themes work within the framework of an alien encounter.

This series moves along fairly slowly. It's only twelve episodes and about 4.5 hours long, and yet it still felt like the plot didn't progress much in places. I think the story could have fairly easily been put into a movie format rather than a series and been handled just as well. The extended time didn't bother me too much, though, since it gives the viewer some time to think about the various odd happenings.

The weakest part of Kado in my opinion is the ending. (Minor spoilers here but nothing too specific.) It turns out that zaShunina isn't the only alien being in the story, and in the end his plans are upset by cooperation between humans and that other alien. I thought the introduction of another non-human force felt contrived, coming into the story as late as it did. If they'd had some indication from the start that zaShunina wasn't alone, I think that would have worked a lot better.

Despite the weakness near the end, I had a fun time with Kado. Definitely not for the action lover or impatient viewer, but it brings up some interesting ideas and the production is excellent. Worth the short watch time if the concepts are at all interesting to you.

This time the event was much more about the beer. We went to five different bars around downtown Grand Rapids, and had a beer ticket for each. You didn't have to drink them all, or do it while running...some people went back afterward, some just walked between the bars, others didn't drink at all. But you did have to go to each bar, where a volunteer would give you a sticker to show that you'd made it to that checkpoint.

There was no official course, just the start/finish location and five bars. There was a suggested route, but you were welcome to find your own path, as long as you obeyed the traffic laws. There were no streets closed, so we all had to watch out for cars! According to my GPS tracker, I ended up going a total of 5.9 km. I never really got lost, although I did nearly run past one of the bars since I ended up approaching it from the back instead of the front - fortunately they had a sign! I ended up jogging along the river for quite a bit of the run, which was nice.

Being a moron, I both ran and drank at all five bars along the way. That's four and a half pints (City Built Brewing had a smaller size glass) in 50 minutes, which is a lot by itself. Add in the running and I was certainly feeling a bit rough around the edges! I enjoyed it, though. They had plenty of water and snack food at the finish - both pretzels and similar bar food, and granola and bananas and other post-run food. I stayed there for more than an hour, talking with other participants and cheering the award winners, and by the time that was all done I felt fine.

All four of the Beer Flight Series races were a good time. I'll be keeping an eye out to see if they're doing again next year.

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Terror in Resonance is set in an alternate modern-day Japan where a series of terrorist attacks are being carried out in Tokyo. It follows the young terrorists and the detective hunting them, through the attacks and the discovery of the reasons behind them.

It's clear very early on in this series that the heroes of the story are the two young men who are carrying out the terrorist bombings. You don't learn their reasons until nearly the end, but even in the first couple of episodes it's clear that they're not out to do major harm. They're careful to avoid deaths and minimize injuries, and even help to stop one of the bombings when things go wrong. I don't think the writers intended to condone the use of terrorism, but it's certainly not painted as the ultimate evil that we tend to think of in the modern world.

The evil in this series comes largely from governments. The main detective character is an outcast with the police force, having previously been demoted for pursuing the wrong powerful government official. Secret government programs played a large role in our young terrorists' background. The United States sends an armed contingent to "cooperate" with the police, effectively taking over and making things quite a bit worse. The corruption of authority is overwhelming, leading to those terrorist tactics.

Considering how short the series is (only 11 episodes, about 4 hours), I thought the characters were fairly well developed. There's time to get a good feel for the two young men, a girl that they befriend along the way, and their detective pursuer. Most of the other characters have little depth, but that's not really an issue since they don't get a lot of screen time anyhow. The limited length of the series means that it stays focused on the main characters and key story elements without much in the way of tangents, which I appreciated.

The production quality of Terror in Resonance is solid, if not particularly eye-catching. This isn't a series with a lot of flashy action sequences, but what action there was worked well. The voice actors did a solid job, the visuals were well done, and the music was great. (No surprise there, music by Yoko Kanno.)

I was very impressed with Terror in Resonance. It may be short, but that's not a drawback in a series that has a well-crafted story to tell. Definitely worth the watch.